It wasn’t the motivation. “You don’t want to stay last and you still want to play as high up as possible,” said Alba Berlin’s national basketball player Johannes Thiemann after the capital city’s renewed bankruptcy in the Euroleague. And yet Alba seems to be a bit out of breath in international competition.
The Berliners are bottom of the table after 22 games, a playoff place is no longer realistic. There were some very close defeats, but they stood no chance in Wednesday night’s 84-102 home loss to AS Monaco. It was also the fourth bankruptcy in a row.
“We never got into the game. One had the impression that we could still play four hours and then not too much would change,” said manager Marco Baldi. Despite a four-day break without having to travel, Alba lacked strength from the start. “January and February are always the toughest months. You have no sun, you have little energy. And then you always have five games a week,” said Thiemann.
“This is already a phase where you have to be careful not to think about the next but really only about what’s coming now. That’s all that matters,” said Baldi. Both in a game and in the game plan. His team never managed to do that against Monaco. “And not consistently,” he said.
In a good 14 days, the Cup Final Four is also coming up. “Of course we want to have a good feeling,” said Thiemann. “We want to learn, we want to improve, especially with regard to the playoffs in the Bundesliga and the cup. These games are important for that.”
Alba has five more games to go before the cup. The first two within three days. On Friday, the Berliners will play in the Euroleague at Fenerbahce Istanbul (6.45 p.m.), on Saturday the team will travel via Frankfurt to Heidelberg, where they will play on Sunday (6 p.m./both Magentasport). “The energy has to come from somewhere. We all have to push ourselves again and see what’s in it,” said Thiemann.
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